Day trips from San Francisco with a car

WE HAVE A WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCO IN SEPTEMBER WITH A CAR. APART FROM THE CITY SIGHTS, WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO SEE ON DAY/OVERNIGHT TRIPS FURTHER AFIELD?

B. PIERCE, BIRCHGROVE

Yosemite National Park would be my number one pick: it is a knockout, especially at that time of the year. You might spend a night there, the park is at its best at the top and bottom ends of the day. Majestic Yosemite Hotel, formerly the Ahwahnee Hotel (yosemitepark.com) would be my first, best choice. You could spend another half day at Muir Woods National Monument, the forest of giant redwoods just 20 kilometres north of the city. Another fine trip is the ferry ride across San Francisco Bay to Sausalito, a funky, artsy community of well-heeled ex-hippies and yachties. There are lots of small art galleries here and a clutch of ethnic cafes and restaurants that give you reason to linger, some right over the water.

On the southern side of the bay you've got Mountain View and Santa Clara Valley, also known as Silicon Valley, home to some of the most famous names in the digital world. Among the places you can visit are the Intel Museum, the Computer History Museum, Stanford University, NASA's Ames Research Center, Apple's Infinite Loop Campus Store and the Google campus, but only from the outside. It's quite easy to navigate your way around the major sites with a GPS but a guided tour might help you make better sense of it. Golden Horizon Tours (goldenhorizontravel.com) get great reviews for their customised tours, while Viator (viator.com) has some cheaper options.